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Thursday, April 17, 2014

Reflecting on the Seven Last Words...

4/14/14

Just a quick stop in before heading to
Philadelphia for some time with Dan.

4/15

The conversation with Martin continues.

Jeremy G and Mario are in for another in our
ongoing conversations. The open choir and the seed group have continued to
meet. There’s been enough excitement that Mario decided to come back from Italy
to see what’s going on. Jeremy G is going to apply for a grant to bring
together a symposium to pursue the issues that are emerging.

Mario continues to be drawn towards bringing
already existing groups and communities together in some new ways. Sometimes the most conservative, compassionate, caring yet exclusive groups. My interest
continues to be in helping new communities come together. Drawn together
through an experience, bonded through mutual commitment and accountability and
reaching out to others in service.That
seems to be how Jeremy G’s work is emerging. And how does that connect to
West-Park?Can communities of question, acceptance and openness grow like conservative communities? Can it be one of the communities within a community? That idea is coming back into focus again.

Our weekly Bible Study tonight focuses on the
traditional Seven Last Words of Christ. The
traditional order is:

1.Luke 23:34: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they
do.

2.Luke 23:43: Truly, I say to you today, you will be with me in
paradise.

·Woman, behold your son: behold your mother(directed at Mary, the mother of Jesus, either
as a self-reference, or as a reference to thebeloved disciple and an instruction to the
disciple himself)

·I thirst(just before a wetted sponge, mentioned by all
the Canonical Gospels, is offered)

·It is finished(last words)

The Seven Last Words is another of those
traditions that arose in the Middle Ages when the population was illiterate and
only ever heard the Bible in Latin. The Seven Last Words were a teaching
harmonization presented liturgically, like lessons and carols, to present one
coherent story to the people.

At West-Park, for years we had a special Good Friday Seven Last Words service led by your youth and children. The idea troubled me at first, but over the years, I came to appreciate it as a teaching experience with very ancient roots.

After reading expanded sayings, that is with
the contextual paragraphs, we go back and read each story separately. Try and
discern the focus of each gospel writer.

We also see two overall themes, forsakeness
and forgiveness.

Mark emphasizes the forsakeness. Jesus quotes
Psalm 22, a Psalm that begins is desolate abandonment but ends in affirmation
and praise. It is also a blue print for the crucifixion story, including
mocking and scorn (6-8, 12-13), thirst (15), clothing divided by lots (18),
piercing (16), almost all the elements. And then from 19-31 triumph.

We believe that the sense of abandonment is
real. If Jesus is fully human, he must feel that to the center of his being,
otherwise he will not know us. I grew up with empty crosses. We regarded
crucifixes as pagan,idolatrous. Only later did I realize that often the empty cross is a protection from,
avoidance of the real suffering in the world. It was actually first in the
small hill towns of New Mexico that I fully understood how people saw themselves
in the figure on the cross and felt strengthened by the sense that somehow God
understood them.

Matthew (27: 32-54) only includes this word,
although his story is rich with all kinds of other details. Like all kinds of
dead people raised from the graves and walking around.(53) Like one of the
interns in our study group said, the zombie story. Walking dead style.

In Luke 23: 26-47,we have the shift from inward to outward.The offering of forgiveness to the crucifiers
(34) and the confessionof the
(so-called) good thief. (43) And we note:

* Crucifixion was for political criminals,
those who attacked military and commercial targets on behalf of the resistance.
It was a way to terrorize the population. Only the Romans could do that. Jews
could only stone, with the permission of the Romans.

* The accusing thief echoes Psalm 22 again.
There was a tradition in Egypt that the good thief had encountered Jesus as an
infant and let the holy family get away free. He is the first to confess Jesus
as Lord, given the desertion of Peter and the disciples.

* Paradise was where souls hung out wit God
until the day of physical resurrection. A Garden of Eden like holding area.

In John (19: 1-37), we
find both the inner and outer. Though John never directly quotes Psalm 22, it
echoes throughout his telling of the story. The outward compassion of
commending the one he loved and his mother
to care for one another. The expression of thirst (Ps.22 again). The imagery of
the Passover ( no broken bones) for the first time creating a sacrificial expiation image. Hyssop, another passover reference. Water and blood, both medically accurate, as Anna tells us, but also an image of baptism and eucharist. And that
final expression, It is finished, not so much his life, as his earthly work.

As each gospel writer had
his own perspective, as we look at their work, so will we. The seven last words
weave a narrative coming from different streams into one chronology. It’s not a
factual history but an expression of truth.